Attar Al Kaaba

This is wonderful. At first, it's a bit too sharp and medicinal, but when it dries down, it's the most beautiful thing. Sweet roses (not cloyingly sweet like some chavvy reggaeton girl, but with a subtle and sophisticated sweetness, nothing gourmand). Roses and incense, a meditative aroma reminiscent of churches and Holy Week processions. I'm not religious and I don't attend any religious rituals, but I often visit churches for the art and architecture, and this attar smells of churches, burning wax candles, roses, and something sacred. I don't know what mosques smell like, but I imagine something similar to this beauty. A comforting scent, perfect for winter, relaxing and clean. Very, very changeable: over time, the sweet roses and medicinal note predominate at first, then it becomes more incense and Magno soap, and finally ends up as a clean musk clinging to the skin. What a beautiful perfume! I can't stop sniffing my wrists. It's similar to Sharqiah by Al Rehab but not so dry and Marwah by Al Haramain but more complex and less sweet. The old oud/saffron/roses combo becomes a masterpiece. Totally unisex. It's a pity I can only wear this in winter because it would be too cloying and suffocating in our terrible Andalusian summers. Mine came in a black box and is quite long lasting, but the sillage is not huge. I don't know if the red version smells different. By the way, the velvety box and golden flask are beautiful too.

I remember when I first bought this, over a decade ago, I thought it was a little harsh, but intriguing. Over time I came to appreciate then love the treacle toffee/rose effect in drydown, also the subtle sense of incense. Nowadays with oud being such a popular note, it seems quite soft. I use the oil, which is quite powerful. Not sure if it's been reformulated, or different in non oil form ,since some here are saying it's not very impactful. My husband loves this on me, and can wear it too. It got him into Arabian perfumes. It's one of a few perfumes I wear (among hundreds :) ) that he nearly always reacts to with an 'mmm aahh', the others being Chanel 19 EDT, Santa Maria Novella's 'Aqua Colonia Rosa Nova' and Metamorphic by Kingdom Scotland. Not much in common with that lot except a certain complexity I think. The mood is elegant, clean yet deep and rich. I love wearing dark red velvet in winter, this and Luten's le Fille de Berlin would be first choices for those velvety winter outfits Big love, and much admiration for this unassuming company.

My first foray into the world of Eastern perfumes and I'm bowled over. What a seductive, rich, unctuous fragrance. Resinous, woody, with a very pronounced damascene rose accord, Attar Al Kaaba is what I always dreamed a real oriental would be. The western world's interpretation of this type of fragrance tends to fall into the sweet side of the spectrum. Here we have a heady combination of woody resins and what opens as a dark, heady rose note. 2 hours later: it's becoming a skin scent. Very different from European frags; no development through different stages over time. 3 hours later: the scent is gently fading away, leaving behind a soft trail of rose. I recommend, but would remind potential buyers that Eastern fragrances are composed in a wholly different way than what we're used to...expect to reaaply now and again. No, applying huge quantities at once will not make it last longer; anointing yourself with a free hand will not help at all; you'll end up offending the folks around you and overpowering your own sense of smell.

This is a very pleasant surprise - I wasn't sure if it would be too heavy (it's rich, but on cool, quite dry skin that's good as it doesn't disappear!) or smell a bit like an incense stick, it's very faintly incense-like - if you were to buy a very high quality rose incense. When I first tested it I also had on L'Artisan's Havana Vanille, which I'd say is a good quality scent, but next to Al Kaaba it started to smell too sweet, like a fudge doughnut, or something that a supermarket would spray in its bakery section to tempt in customers To my nose Al Kaaba starts off smelling like rich rose with a touch of swimming pool, then turns to rose incense. But after half an hour this delicious sweet amber rose emerges. It's a bit like rose flavoured treacle toffee - a lovely dark/bitter treacle-like sweetness. I think that effect is due to the small touch of bitter aoud combined with rose and amber - which probably has a touch of vanilla.

Well I got the red boxed one, this attar is AMAZING, I could smell it even before opening the outer box! It's magic, initially it's a triumph of roses and oud, then come the saffron and the honeyed sandal, and finally it's like rose incense and burnt wood. This is a fragrance you cannot ignore and which you cannot forget. I love it, it's my feminine fragrance, I alternate it with Night Dreams oil, which is more masculine but lasts much longer. I tried also to mix them, with good results. These two are really stunning and Al Haramain is really a great value of money and high quality as regards these two. Some people say that the black boxed Kaaba is more masculine and deeper, I'd like to test it someday and see if really there's a difference.